Mattias Andersson takes delight with Falkenberg “revenge” victory

Mattias Andersson was ecstatic after securing his first victory of the year at Falkenberg, three weeks after a near-certain victory escaped him due to a late race puncture at Anderstorp.

The MA:GP Honda driver catapulted into the lead at the start, passing both the Brink Motorsport Audi RS 3 LMSs, and then was able to fight off a late charge from the KMS Volkswagen of Johan Kristoffersson, who coincidentally retired with a puncture with five laps to go.

“It feels like revenge for Anderstorp when we leading and on our way to victory,” said Andersson to TouringCarTimes. “This felt the same, we were going for the victory…I had a good start again, and I was able to manage the gap to (Tobias) Brink in the first few laps, and then I was pulling away a little bit, but then I saw the white Golf (of Johan Kristoffersson) coming. Of course, he’s very good, and he’s very quick, he’s a world champion.”
After a puncture put him out at Anderstorp, and with the Falkenberg circuit notoriously hard on the front-left, the 45-year-old admitted he had to take care of the car during the early phase of the race.

“I was going at 98% at the beginning, but then when Johan came I pushed quite hard and felt like the tyre was starting to go away from me,” he said.

“At the end of the race, when I got to the chicane on the last lap, I knew (Fredrik Ekblom) would never get past me, as I would be on the inside for the last corner and the finish line is quite close there, and also as Fredrik is a nice guy and he wouldn’t do anything stupid.”